2017 Global. Health Research ANNUAL REPORT

Transcription

1 2017 Global Health Research ANNUAL REPORT

2 702 Rotary Circle, Suite 101 Indianapolis, IN Copyright September 2017 The Trustees of Indiana University

3 Contents Message from the Director of Global Health Research... 3 Mission & Goals... 2 Leadership Team... 3 Global Health Pilot Grants CTSI Global Health Pilot Grant Awardees CTSI Global Health Pilot Grant Awardees... 5 Global Health Seminar Series... 6 Clinical Impact... 7 CTSI & Reciprocal Global Health Innovation... 7 Infrastructure for Global Health Research... 8 Global Health Research Support Services... 8 Biostatistics Support... 8 Field Co-Directors for Research... 8 East Africa Biobank... 9 Partnerships...10 AMPATH Research Network...10 Global Network...14 IeDEA Consortium...14 Malaria Research Program...14 IU Center for AIDS Research...15 HEARD Partnership...16

4 Message from the Director of Global Health Research Dear Colleagues, Over the last year, Indiana University s engagement in Global Health research grew significantly. With support from the IU School of Medicine, Indiana CTSI, and the Department of Pediatrics, the IU Center for Global Health expanded its ability to support research that will improve the health of people in resource-limited regions around the world -- and here in Indiana. Investigators allied with the Center have received more than $7 million in new awards to conduct Global Health research in FY 2017 and produced over 114 publications in top-tier journals in the last three years. The support our Center provides enabled these investigators to supervise more than 60 pre- and post-doctoral trainees as they explore Global Health research. We catalyzed 6 new Global Health research programs through pilot funding. We invested in critical research resources such as biobanking facilities and electronic data systems in Kenya. And, our growing partnerships with academic research centers around the world continue to open opportunities for IU researchers to impact Population Health policies on a global scale. Rachel Vreeman Director of Research IU Center for Global Health As we look towards the year ahead, we will continue to build resources and infrastructure that will strengthen Global Health research at IU. To that end, we have established a new research advisory council to help guide the Center s research priorities and mission. We plan to expand training, mentorship, and pilot funding opportunities for junior research faculty interested in careers in Global Health research. We will strive to expand and support our pool of allied Global Health researchers. Together, we want to make Indiana University one of the top 5 centers for Global Health research in the United States. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the growth of the IU Center for Global Health s Research Programs over the last year. Sincerely, Rachel C. Vreeman, MD, MS Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Joe and Sarah Ellen Mamlin Scholar for Global Health Research, Indiana University School of Medicine Director of Research, Indiana University Center for Global Health Co-Director of Research, AMPATH, Kenya Global Health Research Report

5 Mission & Goals The IU Center for Global Health has provided a strategic leadership platform for Global Health research at Indiana University since its inception in The mission of the Center s Research Program is to support research to eliminate health disparities and improve the health of people in resource-limited settings both in Indiana and around the world. Our program serves as a hub to bring together multidisciplinary research teams to solve the world s most difficult health challenges and train the world s future Global Health leaders. In order to achieve this mission, we will: Goal 1 Develop and support independent, collaborative interdisciplinary research teams who seek to identify innovations that improve Global Health outcomes. Goal 2 Enhance growth in key, high-yield, researchrelated initiatives, including Basic Sciences and Translational Sciences research, Biobanking, Cancer, Population-focused disease control, Informatics and decision support systems, and Implementation Science Research dissemination. Goal 3 Foster a supportive Global Health researchintensive culture within the schools and departments of the academic partners of the IUCGH. Goal 4 Develop strong internal and external support for Global Health research at IU Global Health Research Report 2

6 Leadership Team Staff Rachel Vreeman Director David Plater Associate Director Jerry Wagner Program Manager Michael Kidney Assistant Business Manager Shawn Grinter Program Coordinator Advisory Council Sue Babich, DrPH, MS Associate Dean of Global Health & Professor of Health Policy and Management, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI Aaron Carroll, MD Associate Dean for Research Mentoring, IU School of Medicine, Director, Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research, Director, Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Comparative Effectiveness Research Robert Einterz, MD Associate Dean for Global Health, IU School of Medicine, Director, IU Center for Global Health, and Donald E. Brown Professor of Global Health Debra Litzelman, MA, MD, MACP D. Craig Brater Professor of Global Health Education, IU School of Medicine, and Director of Education, IU Center for Global Health Chandy John, MD, MS Director, Section of Infectious Diseases and Global Health, Ryan White Professor of Pediatrics, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Indiana University Pat Loehrer, MD Director, IU Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, Associate Dean for Cancer Research, IU School of Medicine Robin Newhouse, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN Dean and Distinguished Professor, IU School of Nursing Mike Weiner, MD, MPH Director, IU Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research, Director, Center for Health Services Research, Regenstrief Institute Kara Wools-Kaloustian, MD Director, Division of Infectious Diseases, David H. Jacobs Professor of Infectious Diseases, IU School of Medicine Global Health Research Report

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8 Global Health Pilot Grants Over the last two years, the IU Center for Global Health s Research Program, in partnership with the Indiana CTSI, funded 13 pilot grants totaling $190,000 as part of its Global Health Research Pilot Grant Competition. These awards support pilot work by investigators from 4 Indiana CTSI institutions, including IU Bloomington, IUPUI, Purdue, and Notre Dame. Awardees are engaging in pilot research that will strengthen and build research collaborations in half a dozen countries around the world CTSI Global Health Pilot Grant Awardees Proposal Title PI Institution Award 1. Dental Caries Prevention Program Tailored to Rural Indigenous Communities in Mexico Esperanza Martinez- Mier 2. Pharmaceutical Quality in Malawi Marya Lieberman 3. Determining the prevalence and density of asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum infections in low and high transmission settings in Western Kenya: a pilot study to select appropriate sites for a mosquito infectivity study Tuan Tran 4. mhealth Readiness Assessment in Liberia Michael Reece 5. Bridging the Gap from the Hospital to the Clinic: Using Peer Navigators on the Inpatient Wards to Improve Linkage, Retention and Adherence to HIV Care in Western Kenya 6. Screening of cooking shelters against outdoor malaria vectors in southern Zambia; a semi-field study IU School of Dentistry University of Notre Dame IU School of Medicine IU Bloomington Rakhi Karwa Purdue University Neil Lobo University of Notre Dame $10,000 $10,000 $10,000 $10,000 $10,000 $10, Feasibility, Acceptability, and Usability testing in Kenya of NeoWarm: An innovative biomedical device to prevent newborn hypothermia in low-middle income countries Sherri Bucher IU School of Medicine $10, CTSI Global Health Pilot Grant Awardees Proposal Title PI Institution Award 1. Phylogenetic Inference of Vertical versus Horizontal HIV Transmission among Adolescents in Western Kenya John Humphrey IU School of Medicine $20, Evaluation of locally-sourced compression therapy for treatment of chronic venous leg ulcers and management of Kaposi sarcoma leg lymphedema in western Kenya Sonak Pastakia Purdue $20, The Epidemiology of Trauma and Trauma- Related Resources at a National Referral Hospital in Western Kenya Connie H Keung IU School of Medicine $20, Facilitating Home Hospice Care Via Telecommunication in Kenya Kenneth Cornetta IU School of Medicine $20, Strengthening the Adolescent HIV Care Cascade in Western Kenya: A qualitative study investigating critical gaps in care and potential interventions Leslie Anne Enane IU School of Medicine $20, Pan African DrPH Strategic Leadership Training Needs Assessment: Kenya and Nigeria Suzanne Babich IUPUI $20, Global Health Research Report 5

9 Global Health Seminar Series Date Presenter Title/Presentation Link 11/10/2016 Rachel Vreeman Walking Together Through A Lifetime With HIV: Challenges on the Journey for Children in Sub-Saharan Africa 12/13/2016 Megan McHenry "Ethics of International Research with HIVinfected Children" 1/10/2017 Ed Liechty Implementation Research in Developing Countries: Sometimes the results are unexpected. The Global Network Prenatal Steriod Trial 2/14/2017 Pat Loehrer Building A Cancer Program in Kenya 3/14/2017 Chandy John Research Ethics in International Clinical Trials 4/11/2017 Sherri Bucher The NeoInnovate Portfolio: Global Health Research, Innovation, and International Collaboration to Reduce Newborn Mortality in Low/Middle-income Countries 5/9/2017 Kara Wools-Kaloustian Developing and assessing a communitybased model of antiretroviral care ( ART Coops ) 5/30/2017 Tizian Zumthurn Medical Practice at Albert Schweitzer s Hospital in Lambarene (Gabon) : An Early Model of Global Health 7/11/2017 Tuan Tran Applying systems biology approaches to studies of acquired immunity to malaria in African children 8/8/2017 Suzanne Babich How will we train tomorrow s health leaders? Introducing the new Doctoral Program in Global Health Leadership (DrPH) Since November 2016, the IU Center for Global Health has partnered with the IU Center for Bioethics to present a monthly seminar series to offer a venue for campuswide discussion, education, and collaboration on Global Health research and research ethics. To date, this seminar series has featured 10 speakers and attracted nearly 500 faculty, student, and staff attendees, as well as participants from local community partners outside the university Global Health Research Report

10 Clinical Impact IU s Global Health Research efforts impact clinical care, health care delivery systems, and population health in Indiana and beyond. Some examples of clinical impact stemming from research supported by the Center include: Evaluating, Then Implementing New Models of Healthcare Delivery. Following a decade of research by Kara Wools-Kaloustian and collaborators on using paraprofessionals and community-based delivery of HIV care in Kenya, the AMPATH program has implemented communitybased care delivery and group models for care within its expanded Population Health initiative. Tools to Support Adolescent HIV Care. Research conducted by Rachel Vreeman and her collaborators in Kenya led to the construction of tools to measure children s adherence to HIV medications and a multi-media curriculum to support individual and group counseling around HIV disclosure to children. These tools are now being used for clinical care in Kenya, South Africa, and Thailand. New clinical tools under development includes a mobile system for mental health support. Informing Global Health Policy. In FY 2017, data and biostatistical modeling from the IU-led East Africa International Epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (EA-IeDEA) contributed directory to new estimates by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization on the numbers of children and adolescents living with HIV. These key projections guide international strategy for HIV testing and care, including forecasting about treatment needs, and they inform government health policy in East Africa and beyond. Preparing for Malaria Epidemics. Chandy John s research work on antibody-based tools for estimating recent and chronic malaria exposure has enabled teams in Uganda and Kenya to develop tools that predict the risk of malaria epidemics. WeCare Indiana. Developed by Deb Litzelman using lessons learned from community-based HIV programs in Kenya, the WeCare Indiana Project is working to reduce infant mortality in central Indiana using community health workers and text messaging campaigns to connect new mothers with local health resources. In the last fiscal year, this project received additional funding and support from the Indiana Department of Health to expand its operations. Better translation of health research outcomes into local practice. In the last year, the Center assisted in recruiting new clinical faculty like Laura Ruhl, with global health experience and research capacity, to dedicate time to bridging the gap between research and clinical practice. Two technical working groups, one for Pediatrics and one for Adolescent Health, were also formed at AMPATH, with faculty from both research and clinical backgrounds, to help inform and strengthen clinical practice using global health research outcomes. CTSI & Reciprocal Global Health Innovation As part of the Indiana CTSI 3.0 renewal application, the IU Center for Global Health led efforts to propose a module focused on developing a statewide mechanism to support reciprocal innovation with global partners from the CTSI s member institutions. Called the Global Local module, the long-term goal for the Global Health research program within the Indiana CTSI 3.0 is to develop a robust infrastructure to design, demonstrate, duplicate, and rapidly disseminate high-quality health innovations developed through reciprocal research collaborations in resource-limited settings around the world that can help with local health challenges in Indiana and beyond. To achieve this goal, the CTSI will create a platform, the Indiana CTSI s Global Health Innovation Reciprocal Exchange (G*HIRE) to reciprocally test and implement health innovations in collaboration with its LMIC partners. This infrastructure will accelerate the ability of CTSI institutions to successfully model and fuel reciprocal innovations to improve health in Indiana. We believe G-HIRE will provide a new engine for translating lessons from global health research that will improve the health of people in Indiana, our nation, and the world Global Health Research Report 7

11 Infrastructure for Global Health Research Over the last year, the IU Center for Global Health with support from the School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, and Indiana CTSI has expanded the research support and infrastructure we offer for global health research. These supports include an expanded administrative support for global health research grant development and implementation, continued biostatistics support for the development of research datasets used by IU s AMPATH, and new research infrastructure to support IU s research partnerships in East Africa. Global Health Research Support Services In January 2017, the IU Center for Global Health restructured and expanded its administrative support team to better support global health research at IU and AMPATH in Kenya. As part of this restructuring, personnel hosted at the Regenstrief Institute were transferred to Indiana University and program accounts and resources were consolidated under a single administrative structure. In addition, we hired a new program manager to help coordinate greater research engagement with the AMPATH program in Kenya and an assistant business manager to help facilitate grant development and implementation with our partners abroad. Work is also underway to recruit a grant development and communications specialist who will assist Center-affiliated researchers develop more competitive grant applications for global health research. Global Health Research Support Services New Administrative Structure Michael Kidney Assistant Business Manager Rachel Vreeman Director David Plater Assistant Director Shawn Grinter Program Coordinator Biostatistics Support In order to ensure continued access to high quality research data from AMPATH and other global health research partners, the IU Center for Global Health committed new salary support (25 percent FTE) for Bev Musick. Dr. Musick is an IU biostatistician who provides critical support for the development of AMPATH s research data sets that serve as a key platform for research in Kenya. The addition of support for Dr. Musick will complement existing supports the Center has provided to conduct data quality control and improvement for AMPATH s AMRS and other data systems. These efforts are critical to our efforts to strengthen access for IU researchers to this unique global health research resource. Jeremy Wagner Program Manager Wendy O'Meara Field Co-Director Violet Naanyu Field Co-Director TBN Grant Development Specialist & Writer Paula Braitstein Field Co-Director Suzanne Goodrich Field Co-Director Field Co-Directors for Research The IU Center for Global Health has continued to support 4 field co-directors of research at AMPATH in Kenya. These field co-directors are active investigators with expertise in data quality and evaluation, public health, community based research, laboratory services, health systems research, and implementation research. The field co-directors serve as mentors and navigators for investigators seeking to conduct health research at AMPATH. Over the last year, these field co-directors have assisted in assessing the quality of data for AMPATH research data sets, supported needs assessments for the creation of joint Moi-IU doctoral program in public health, assisted in the reaccreditation of the AMPATH research laboratory, and assisted in the development of reciprocal review agreements between the IU and Moi IRBs Global Health Research Report 8

12 East Africa Biobank Through an initial commitment of US$80,000 from IU s Physician Scientists Initiative (PSI), the IU Center for Global Health has established a new East Africa Biobank in cooperation with the AMPATH Research Program and the Moi University College of Health Sciences. This new facility will be hosted by the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in the new Chandaria Cancer and Chronic Disease Center in Eldoret, Kenya. The expanded facility includes a new specimen processing laboratory and administrative support center, and secure storage space for up to ten -80 freezers and liquid nitrogen storage. The facility is scheduled for completion by the end of In addition, the Center has engaged advisory support from Drs. Ken Cornetta and Aaron Ermel on the design and construction of the new biobanking facilities. Drs. Cornetta and Ermel have worked closely with counterparts at Moi University to design the new facility and develop new policies and procedures for the handling and management of banked research specimens Global Health Research Report

13 Partnerships AMPATH Research Network Coordinated by the IU Center for Global Health, the AMPATH Research Program reflects our deepest, longest partnership. The AMPATH Research Network seeks to improve the health of people in Kenya and other resource-limited settings, through the identification, development and dissemination of relevant and timely information on health and health care systems for use by decision-makers and care providers in resource-limited countries. The program began in 1998 with its first research collaboration between Indiana University, Moi University, and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and has grown to include more than 100 active studies and a network of collaborators from 20 institutions in North America, Europe, and East Africa. Today, the research program includes a robust infrastructure for research including a system of peer research development groups to assist in the mentoring of new investigators and the development of new research, an ISO accredited laboratory, an IRB, a research and sponsored projects office, and cores in biostatistics, data management, informatics, and bioethics. In 2017, the program grew to nearly $112 million in cumulative direct research awards from the NIH, CDC, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, and others. Nearly 73 percent of this cumulative total was awarded by the NIH since Support from research sponsors like the NIH has resulted in more than 537 publications in peer reviewed journals like the Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, JAIDS, and JGIM. Since 1998, the NIH has awarded nearly $80 million in direct costs ($91.4 million in total costs (directs + indirects) to investigators engaged in collaborative research activities through AMPATH. In the last decade, nearly 80 percent of the funds awarded to AMPATH research partners were awarded by just five NIH institutes or centers including the NIAID (31%), NICHD (20%), FIC (11%), NCI (10%), and NHLBI (8%) (See Figure 1). The IU Center for Global Health coordinates the development of AMPATH s Semi-Annual Report and maintains a bibliography of AMPATH research publications. These resources provide more detailed reporting of AMPATH s research activities and are available online Global Health Research Report

14 Figure 1: Total AMPATH Research & Training Grants Awarded by Year (Direct Costs in US$) Millions (US$) $120 $100 $80 $60 $40 $20 $- $109.3 $111.7 $101.0 $92.3 $83.5 $72.7 $60.9 $48.9 $40.8 $26.3 $18.5 $5.4 $7.6 $0.6 $0.8 $0.8 $1.1 $ Year Figure 2: Total NIH Funding Awarded to AMPATH Research Network Partners for Fiscal Years (Total Costs Awarded =$91,417,423) NHLBI, $7,678,380, 8.40% NCI, $8,925,223, 9.76% NIMH, $6,692,344, 7.32% NIAAA, $6,269,832, 6.86% FIC, $10,308,977, 11.28% NIDA, $4,446,165, 4.86% NHGRI, $247,500, 0.27% NIBIB, $189,883, 0.21% NIA, $17,898, 0.02% NICHD, $17,977,437, 19.67% NIAID, $28,663,784, 31.35% 2017 Global Health Research Report 11

15 Figure 3: Total NIH Funding Awarded to AMPATH Research Network Partners by Fiscal Year (Total Costs Awarded = $91,417,423) $14,000,000 $12,000,000 $10,000,000 $8,000,000 $6,000,000 $4,000,000 $2,000,000 $ NIMH NIDA NICHD NIBIB NIAID NIAAA NIA NHLBI NHGRI NCI FIC Figure 4: Indirect and Direct Costs Awarded by NIH Institute to AMPATH Research Network Partners for Fiscal Years (Directs = $45,572,633 Indirects = $8,504,141) $20,000,000 $18,000,000 $16,000,000 $14,000,000 $12,000,000 $10,000,000 $8,000,000 Indirect Costs Direct Costs $6,000,000 $4,000,000 $2,000,000 $0 NIA NHGRI NIAAA NIDA NIMH NHLBI FIC NCI NICHD NIAID 2017 Global Health Research Report 12

16 Figure 5: Total Direct Costs Awarded by Prime Recipient Institution for Fiscal Years (Total Directs = $45,572,633 Indirects = $8,504,141) $30,000,000 $25,000,000 $20,000,000 $15,000,000 $10,000,000 $5,000,000 $0 Indirects Directs Figure 6: Number of AMPATH Research Publications since 1998 (n=537) Global Health Research Report 13

17 Global Network The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research (GN) is a cooperative multicenter network formed to conduct clinical research in low-resource countries with the aim of improving health and wellbeing of mothers and children. Indiana University has partnered with Moi University in Kenya to participate as a Global Network partner since During this time, the lu-moi University partnership has established an efficient, productive site in Sub- Saharan Africa. The site consists of 16 clusters located in rural Western Kenya. It has contributed approximately 33,000 subjects to the Maternal Neonatal Health Registry database (MNH Registry) the third most of the 7 Global Network sites. The consent rate is greater than 99 percent. Delivery outcomes are obtained in 96.6% of registered women, and 42-day follow-up is obtained in 98.2%. The partnership has successfully participated in one completed study and is currently participating in 2 ongoing GN studies. The principal Investigators of the Kenya site are Edward A. Liechty, Professor of Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, and Fabian Esamai, Professor of Child Health and Principal of the College of Health Sciences, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya. Dr. Liechty and Professor Esamai have established a productive scientific endeavor based on a long-term relationship of mutual respect and cooperation. Their collaboration began in 2003, when Dr. Liechty was a Fulbright Research Scholar at Moi University. At the time Professor Esamai was head of the Department of Child Health and Pediatrics. Since then Professor Esamai has been Dean of the School of Medicine ( ) and most recently served as the inaugural Principal (i.e. Vice Chancellor) of the newly established Moi University College of Health Sciences. In addition to this position within Moi University, Professor Esamai also is a frequent consultant to the Kenya Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization. The Center s research program has worked closely with the GN s investigative team to support their continued engagement with Moi University in Kenya. The current GN award will end in April 2018 and work has started on a renewal application to continue work for an additional five years. IeDEA Consortium For more than a decade, IU has led the East Africa International Epidemiologic Database to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) consortium one of seven regional data centers funded by the NIH to provide a rich resource for globally diverse HIV/AIDS data. IeDEA is led by Dr. Kara Wools-Kaloustian, in partnership with Dr. Constantin Yiannoutsos, and houses expertise in merging, sharing, and analyzing routine data collected within HIV care and treatment programs, as well as proficiency in the design, conduct and analysis of implementation research. The IeDEA consortium includes partners from nine active HIV-treatment programs in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda and five universities in the United States (IU, Brown, Columbia, Ohio State, and UCSF). The Center partners with IeDEA to support its engagement in East Africa and facilitates coordination of IeDEA s work with the AMPATH program in Kenya. IU investigators serve as global leaders within the IeDEA consortium: Dr. Rachel Vreeman chairs the global Pediatric Working Group for IeDEA, Dr. Kara Wools-Kaloustian is the immediate past chair of the global Executive Committee and leads several global analysis concepts merging data from across the seven regions worldwide, Beverly Musick co-leads the global Strategic Data Working Group, and Dr. Constantin Yiannoutsos leads a new supplemental award to establish a global Pediatric HIV Methods and Modeling Center for IeDEA. Over the last year, IeDEA has enrolled nearly 320,000 adults and 64,761 children in its regional data center. This data has been used to prepare data sets for 10 concept proposals and has updated analysis data sets for 6 other proposals since May IeDEA has also served as a platform for mentoring and training 11 post-doctoral global health research fellows over the last year. IeDEA is leading innovation in data harmonization and analyses used in the analysis of HIV data. IeDEA has contributed more than 22 publications in peer reviewed journals in the last year. Malaria Research Program Malaria causes more than 200 million episodes of illness every year, most in children under 5 years of age. Dr. Chandy John has built a robust malaria research program, with partners at sites in Uganda with Makerere University and in Kenya with the 2017 Global Health Research Report 14

18 Kenya Medical Research Institute and Maseno University. The advance in malaria research from the program include a better understanding of the effect of severe malaria on children s brains and thinking and functioning long-term, improved knowledge of what leads to severe malaria in children and how to assess it, and new findings about immunity in people with less exposure to malaria or with malaria and HIV co-infection that can help to guide vaccine strategies for these populations. This group s research findings have helped to lead to new efforts to also develop drugs that will decrease the complications of malaria in survivors of malaria. Among the highlights from the Malaria Research Program are the findings that: 1) children with severe malaria have long-term behavioral problems; 2) children with cerebral malaria and eye findings of retinopathy have similar but more severe clinical signs as children without these eye findings; 3) lactic acidosis has different causes in different forms of severe malaria, and therefore may have a different prognostic significance in those different forms; 4) specific biomarkers, including cerebrospinal fluid levels of TNF and kynurenic acid, predict cognitive impairment in children with cerebral malaria; 5) delaying iron therapy in children with iron deficiency and malaria was associated with less infection in those children; 6) microparticles may play a role in development of cerebral malaria; 7) a type of response (interferongamma) to malaria antigens that is associated with protection from disease wanes during periods of low transmission; and 8) that HIV-infected Kenyan adults have a proportional increase in total and malaria-specific atypical memory B cells that is due to a decrease in the numbers of naïve and resting B cells. IU Center for AIDS Research Leadership from the IU Center for Global Health is working with the IU Center for AIDS Research (Indiana CFAR) to increase collaborative research throughout the state of Indiana in all aspects of HIV/AIDS prevention and care. As part of this effort, the Indiana CFAR plans to seek funding as an NIH Developmental CFAR in Since 2016, the Indiana CFAR has supported a pilot grant program for junior investigators seeking academic careers in HIV/AIDS research. Four of the 9 Indiana CFAR awardees have received funding to conduct pilot research in Western Kenya in partnership with the Center s AMPATH Research Programs CFAR Pilot Grant Awardees focused on Global Health Proposal Title PI Mentor 1. Assessing Neurodevelopmental Delays in Children Born to HIVinfected Mothers in Western Kenya: A Pilot Study Megan McHenry Rachel Vreeman 2017 CFAR Pilot Grant Awardees focused on Global Health Proposal Title PI Mentor 1. Assessment of Neurodevelopmental Delays in Children Born to HIV-infected Mothers in Western Kenya: Phase 2 Megan McHenry Rachel Vreeman 2. Viral Suppresion among HIV-Infected Children and Caregivers in Western Kenya 3. Investigating Barriers and Facilitators to Adolescent Retention in HIV Care in Western Kenya John Humphrey Leslie Enane Kara Wools- Kaloustian Rachel Vreeman In addition, Dr. John s research group published major review papers on the impact of nutrition and inflammation during early to middle childhood in low-resource settings and on selecting measures for neurodevelopmental assessment of children in low- and middle-income countries that are already being cited as the leading such reviews in their respective fields Global Health Research Report 15

19 HEARD Partnership The Center s research programs began a partnership with the University Research Council s Health Evaluation and Applied Research Development (HEARD) Partnership in The partnership was established to undertake research efforts that accelerate the achievement of USAID health and development goals envisioned within the Preventable Child and Maternal Deaths (EPCMD), AIDS-Free Generation (AFG), and Protecting Communities from Infectious Diseases and other health threats, and the Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI). One of their key goals is to establish an Implementation Science Collaborative to inform which research questions are prioritized in different contexts; to generate and analyze evidence; and to better package and move evidence through channels which render it more accessible to inform policy and practice. The IU Center serves as a technical resource partner for the HEARD Partnership, providing regional expertise in HIV and Population Health initiatives in East Africa. Our participation in this partnership will help accelerate the efforts of key LMIC countries and their development partners to substantially expand the implementation science and research translation capacities required locally to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for Health and related USAID goals. As this partnership has developed over the last year, the Center s leadership has participated in key planning and executive leadership meetings for the HEARD Partnership. In August 2017, Dr. Rachel Vreeman was invited to serve on the Ad Hoc Governance Committee for the Implementation Science Collaborative Global Health Research Report 16

20 702 Rotary Circle, Suite 101 Indianapolis, IN